Council of Europe may be forced to cut jobs without contributions from Moscow

Europe’s leading human rights body is confronting a budget crisis linked to a row with Russia over money, which could ricochet into the furious debate between western countries and Moscow over the UK nerve agent attack.

The Council of Europe, the 47-nation organisation that oversees the European court of human rights, faces a shortfall of at least €42.65m (£37.6m), 10% of its annual budget, according to an official report, meaning it could be forced to cut jobs.

Farid Hilali was accused of being an al-Qaida member who passed messages to logistics cell

A man seeking €1.8m in compensation after being wrongly jailed for five years over 9/11 has said he wants to put Britain and Spain “on the spot” over a gross injustice that left his life in tatters.

Farid Hilali, a Moroccan citizen, was jailed by the UK when it complied with a 2004 European arrest warrant (EAW) issued by Spain that accused him of being an al-Qaida member who passed on messages to the leader of a Spanish logistics cell about the 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.

Research shows 34% rise in attacks against campaigners defending land, environment and labour rights in the face of corporate activity

Human rights defenders who challenge big corporations are being killed, assaulted, harassed and suppressed in growing numbers, researchers have claimed.

A survey by the Business and Human Rights Resource Center recorded a 34% global rise in attacks against human rights activists last year, including 120 alleged murders and hundreds of other cases involving threats, assaults and intimidation. The number of incidents were found to have risen sharply, with 388 attacks recorded in 2017 compared with 290 the previous year.

Formal recognition would help protect those who increasingly risk their lives to defend the land, water, forests and wildlife, says the UN special rapporteur on human rights and the environment

It is time for the United Nations to formally recognise the right to a healthy environment, according to the world body’s chief investigator of murders, beatings and intimidation of environmental defenders.

John Knox, the UN special rapporteur on human rights and the environment, said the momentum for such a move – which would significantly raise the global prominence of the issue – was growing along with an awareness of the heavy toll being paid by those fighting against deforestation, pollution, land grabs and poaching.

Can you be convicted of a killing if you were there when somebody else dealt the fatal blow? The law says so – especially if you’re young and black. By Harry Stopes

At 5.13pm on Thursday 12 May 2016, a young man named Abdul Wahab Hafidah was seen on CCTV cameras running westward through busy traffic across Princess Road in Moss Side, a crowded, diverse, working-class neighbourhood two miles south of Manchester city centre. He was pursued by two young men on foot, and another on a bicycle. As traffic slowed at the junction of Princess Road and Moss Lane East, Hafidah tried desperately to open the door of a passing car, before turning to face his pursuers, waving a knife. They stepped back, and he ran off down Moss Lane East. Someone threw a hammer at him, but missed. The chase went on, joined – or followed – by seven other young men who made their way across Princess Road over the next 45 seconds.

Hafidah was drunk, and he was scared. He knew some of the boys who were chasing him, and he knew they were angry with him. On Moss Lane East, he tried once more to get into a passing vehicle. As he ran across the street, he was hit by more than one car, one of which was a Vauxhall Corsa, driven by a friend of some of those pursuing him. A pathologist later found that he had suffered leg injuries suggesting “a glancing blow” at low speed.

The story of Donald Trump’s alleged relationship with the pornographic actor Stephanie Clifford – AKA Stormy Daniels – is an open secret. Longtime Trump lawyer Michael Cohen has admitted paying Clifford $130,000. In February the celebrity magazine In Touch published a 5,000-word interview detailing Clifford’s story.

But at the same time, the story is the object of an ongoing, almost slapstick behind-the-scenes scramble by Cohen to keep a lid on the whole thing, involving alliterative pseudonyms, a shell company, secret arbitration, threats and at least one active lawsuit.

The Irish government has agreed the wording of a national referendum on abortion to be held by the end of May which could radically transform the lives of thousands of women and signal a further loosening of the grip of the Catholic church.

The cabinet, meeting on International Women’s Day, approved a bill on Thursday allowing the long-anticipated referendum to go ahead.

Myanmar’s military has accused British MPs of making “one sided-accusations” about the plight of the Rohingya and denied that any violence, extrajudicial killings, rape and arson was committed in Rakhine state.

Dozens of British MPs have signed a letter demanding that the foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, and the EU sanction Myanmar over the campaign of violence committed against its minority Muslim community.